December 1, 1981 (Tuesday)

• Inex-Adria Aviopromet Flight 1308
  Inex-Adria Aviopromet Flight 1308
  Inex-Adria Aviopromet Flight 1308, registration YU-ANA, was a Yugoslavian charter flight that crashed on Corsica's Mt. San Pietro in early December of 1981, killing all 180 people on board...
  
  , a McDonnell Douglas MD-80 flying from Yugoslavia
  Yugoslavia
  Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
  
  , crashed into the side of Mount San Pietro in Corsica
  Corsica
  Corsica is an island in the Mediterranean Sea. It is located west of Italy, southeast of the French mainland, and north of the island of Sardinia....
  
   while approaching Ajaccio
  Ajaccio
  Ajaccio , is a commune on the island of Corsica in France. It is the capital and largest city of the region of Corsica and the prefecture of the department of Corse-du-Sud....
  
  , killing all 174 people on board. The group was on a one-day sightseeing trip.
• Iran-Contra scandal: U.S. President Reagan signed a Presidential Finding
  Presidential Finding
  A presidential finding is an executive directive issued by the head of the executive branch of a government, similar to the more well-known executive order. The term is mostly used by the United States Government, and in other countries may be identified by different terms...
  
  , secretly authorizing the CIA to provide direct assistance to the Contra rebels, led by Eden Pastora
  Edén Pastora
  Edén Atanacio Pastora Gómez is a Nicaraguan politician and former guerrilla who ran for president as the candidate of the Alternative for Change party in the 2006 general elections...
  
  , in overthrowing the Sandinista government of Nicaragua. A Congressional committee would cite the action later in a section entitled "Misuse of Findings", concluding that the President authorized more than had been reported to Congress.

December 2, 1981 (Wednesday)

• In the first known meeting of two sufferers of progeria
  Progeria
  Progeria is an extremely rare genetic condition wherein symptoms resembling aspects of aging are manifested at an early age. The word progeria comes from the Greek words "pro" , meaning "before", and "géras" , meaning "old age"...
  
  , Fransie Geringer, 8, of Orkney, South Africa, and Mickey Hays, 9, of Hallsville, Texas
  Hallsville, Texas
  Hallsville is a city in Harrison County, Texas, United States, located west of the county seat, Marshall on U.S. Highway 80. The population was 2,772 at the 2000 census.-Early history:...
  
  , were both brought to Disneyland.
• Born: Britney Spears
  Britney Spears
  Britney Jean Spears is an American recording artist and entertainer. Born in McComb, Mississippi, and raised in Kentwood, Louisiana, Spears began performing as a child, landing acting roles in stage productions and television shows. She signed with Jive Records in 1997 and released her debut album...
  
  , American singer and entertainer, in McComb, Mississippi
  McComb, Mississippi
  McComb is a city in Pike County, Mississippi, United States, about south of Jackson. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 13,644. It is the principal city of the McComb, Mississippi, Micropolitan Statistical Area...
  
  
• Died: Hershy Kay
  Hershy Kay
  Hershy Kay was an American composer, arranger, and orchestrator. He is most noteworthy for the orchestrations of several Broadway shows, and for the ballets he arranged for George Balanchine's New York City Ballet....
  
  , 62, American orchestrator for Broadway musicals.

December 3, 1981 (Thursday)

• Tibetan dissident Lobsang Wangchuk was arrested in China after police found the manuscript and copies of a book he had written, A History of Tibetan Independence. Initially sentenced to 3 1/2 years in prison, the 67 year old religious leader was given a death sentence, then had his term commuted to 18 years. He died, still incarcerated, on November 4, 1987.
• Born: Brian Bonsall
  Brian Bonsall
  Brian Eric Bonsall is an American former child actor. He is best known for playing the youngest Keaton child, Andy, on the NBC sitcom Family Ties from 1986 through 1989. He is also known for his portrayal of Alexander Rozhenko, the son of Worf, on Star Trek: The Next Generation.- Early life and...
  
  , American TV actor, in Torrance, California
  Torrance, California
  Torrance is a city incorporated in 1921 and located in the South Bay region of Los Angeles County, California, United States. Torrance has of shore-front beaches on the Pacific Ocean, quieter and less well-known by tourists than others on the Santa Monica Bay, such as those of neighboring...
  
  ; and David Villa
  David Villa
  David Villa Sánchez , nicknamed , is a Spanish footballer who currently plays as a striker for FC Barcelona and the Spanish national football team. He can also operate as a winger....
  
  , Spanish national team footballer, in Langreo
  Langreo
  Langreo, , officially Llangréu / Langreo is a municipality of northern Spain, province of The Principality of Asturias....
  
  
• Died: Walter Knott
  Walter Knott
  Walter Marvin Knott was an American farmer who created the Knott's Berry Farm amusement park in California....
  
  , 91 American farmer who created the Knott's Berry Farm
  Knott's Berry Farm
  Knott's Berry Farm is a theme park in Buena Park, California, now owned by Cedar Fair Entertainment Company, and a line of jams, jellies, preserves, and other specialty food, now part of The J. M. Smucker Company based in Placentia, California....
  
   theme park

December 4, 1981 (Friday)

• Dudley Wayne Kyzer
  Thomas M. Smith
  Thomas M. Smith is the current District Attorney of the Sixth Judicial Circuit of Alabama. Smith was sworn into the elected office on January 19, 1999...
  
  , convicted of three murders, was sentenced to two life terms and 10,000 years in prison. The sentence, which was reported as a superlative in the Guinness Book of World Records was upheld on appeal, but Kyzer remained eligible for parole because Alabama law set the minimum at one-third of the sentence, or 10 years, whichever is less. Kyzer's most recent bid for parole was denied on August 3, 2010, with 3,371 years remaining on his sentence, and he will be eligible again in 2015.
• The Republic of Ciskei
  Ciskei
  Ciskei was a Bantustan in the south east of South Africa. It covered an area of 2,970 square miles , almost entirely surrounded by what was then the Cape Province, and possessed a small coastline along the shore of the Indian Ocean....
  
   became the fourth "homeland" to be granted independence, joining Transkei
  Transkei
  The Transkei , officially the Republic of Transkei , was a Bantustan—an area set aside for members of a specific ethnicity—and nominal parliamentary democracy in the southeastern region of South Africa...
  
  , Bophuthatswana
  Bophuthatswana
  Bophuthatswana , officially the Republic of Bophuthatswana was a Bantustan – an area set aside for members of a specific ethnicity – and nominal parliamentary democracy in the northwestern region of South Africa...
  
   and Venda
  Venda
  Venda was a bantustan in northern South Africa, now part of Limpopo province. It was founded as a homeland for the Venda people, speakers of the Venda language. It bordered modern Zimbabwe and South Africa, and is now part of Limpopo in South Africa....
  
   as independent nations for black residents of white-ruled South Africa
  South Africa
  The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
  
  . In the capital at Bisho, Chief Minister, and later President, Lennox Sebe
  Lennox Sebe
  Lennox Leslie Wongamu Sebe was chief minister of the Xhosa bantustan of Ciskei, and the country's first president, after its self-rule in 1972....
  
  , oversaw the ceremonies for the 2,100,000 Xhosa language speaking citizens of Ciskei, who were stripped of South African citizenship. No other nations recognized the independence of Ciskei, and the nation was abolished after South Africa attained black majority rule in 1994.
• A sudden power failure at the Qutab Minar tower in New Delhi
  New Delhi
  New Delhi is the capital city of India. It serves as the centre of the Government of India and the Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi. New Delhi is situated within the metropolis of Delhi. It is one of the nine districts of Delhi Union Territory. The total area of the city is...
  
   caused a stampede of 300 tourists who ran for the exits in the dark. Forty-five people were killed and 24 injured.
• Executive Order 12333
  Executive Order 12333
  On December 4, 1981 President Ronald Reagan signedExecutive Order 12333,an Executive Order intended toextend powers and responsibilities of US intelligence agencies and direct the leaders of U.S...
  
   was issued by President Reagan, grouping the various federal intelligence gathering agencies as the Intelligence Community. The Director of Central Intelligence, the CIA, the National Secuirty Agency, the Defense Intelligence Agency, and seven other entities were brought under jurisdiction of the Community.
• Born: Bobbie Jo Stinnett
  Bobbie Jo Stinnett
  Bobbie Jo Stinnett was a 23-year-old pregnant woman found brutally slain in her home in Skidmore, Missouri. The accused, Lisa M. Montgomery, then 36, was convicted of strangling Stinnett from behind and then cutting the woman's unborn child, eight months into gestation, from her womb...
  
  , American crime victim, in Skidmore, Missouri
  Skidmore, Missouri
  Skidmore is a city in Nodaway County, Missouri, United States. The population was 342 at the 2000 census. The small farming community which has a yearly "Punkin' Show", has made international headlines with high profile murders....
  
   (murdered 2004)

December 5, 1981 (Saturday)

• Two years after directing the invasion and occupation of Cambodia
  Cambodia
  Cambodia , officially known as the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia...
  
  , the leaders of Vietnam
  Vietnam
  Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
  
   removed Pen Sovan
  Pen Sovan
  Pen Sovan, sometimes also spelt Pen Sovann , was the first Prime Minister of the Hanoi-backed People's Republic of Kampuchea. He served from June 27, 1981 until December 5, 1981. And he was Secretary General of Kampuchean People's Revolutionary Party from 1979 to 5 December 1981...
  
   as the Kampuchean Communist Party leader, and replaced him with Heng Samrin
  Heng Samrin
  Heng Samrin is a Cambodian politician. He was the chairman of the People's Republic of Kampuchea and the State of Cambodia , and later vice chairman and chairman of the National Assembly of Cambodia since 2006....
  
  .
• On their way to perform a pregame show for a football game between the University of Hawaii and the University of South Carolina, 11 of the 12 members of the skydiving team Jump Hawaii were killed, along with their pilot, when the plane they were on went out of control and crashed into the East Loch of Pearl Harbor. One member of the team managed to parachute out as the plane crashed, while three others jumped but were too low to open their chutes.

December 6, 1981 (Sunday)

• Interviewed by satellite in Tripoli
  Tripoli
  Tripoli is the capital and largest city in Libya. It is also known as Western Tripoli , to distinguish it from Tripoli, Lebanon. It is affectionately called The Mermaid of the Mediterranean , describing its turquoise waters and its whitewashed buildings. Tripoli is a Greek name that means "Three...
  
   by the ABC News
  ABC News
  ABC News is the news gathering and broadcasting division of American broadcast television network ABC, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company...
  
   program This Week With David Brinkley, Libya
  Libya
  Libya is an African country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....
  
  's President Muammar Gaddafi
  Muammar Gaddafi
  Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar Gaddafi or "September 1942" 20 October 2011), commonly known as Muammar Gaddafi or Colonel Gaddafi, was the official ruler of the Libyan Arab Republic from 1969 to 1977 and then the "Brother Leader" of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya from 1977 to 2011.He seized power in a...
  
   denied a U.S. State Department report that he had sent a "hit squad" to assassinate U.S. President Reagan. Speaking in English, Gaddafi said "We are sure we haven't sent any people to kill Reagan or any other people in the world... if they have evidence, we are ready to see this evidence." He added, "How you are silly people! You are superpower, how you are afraid? Oh, it is silly this administration, and this president." Despite rumors that a 5, 10 or 14 member death squad had landed in the U.S. the previous weekend, nothing was ever confirmed and no person was ever arrested or detained.
• At least 49 people were killed in Ahmedabad
  Ahmedabad
  Ahmedabad also known as Karnavati is the largest city in Gujarat, India. It is the former capital of Gujarat and is also the judicial capital of Gujarat as the Gujarat High Court has its seat in Ahmedabad...
  
   in India
  India
  India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
  
   after "The Gabbar", a five-story high wood and canvas model of the Himalayan mountains, caught fire while the group of more than 100 was at the top level.

December 7, 1981 (Monday)

• Manufacture of the Lockheed L-1011 TriStar, Lockheed's wide-body jumbo jet, was discontinued after only eight new orders for the $50,000,000 planes were placed in 1981, and three of those later cancelled. Lockheed Chairman Roy A. Anderson announced that the last of 21 contracts for manufacture would be finished by 1984.
• Eight coal miners were killed in an explosion at the Adkins Coal Company Mine No. 18 near Topmost, Kentucky
  Kentucky
  The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...
  
  .

December 8, 1981 (Tuesday)

• General Electric
  General Electric
  General Electric Company , or GE, is an American multinational conglomerate corporation incorporated in Schenectady, New York and headquartered in Fairfield, Connecticut, United States...
  
   CEO Jack Welch
  Jack Welch
  John Francis "Jack" Welch, Jr. is an American chemical engineer, business executive, and author. He was Chairman and CEO of General Electric between 1981 and 2001...
  
   delivered an address to Wall Street analysts at The Pierre hotel in New York, which has been described as a speech "that was to have enormous consequences for U.S. business and the U.S economy over the next three decades." The vision, outlined in "Growing Fast in a Slow-Growth Economy", was to get rid of any subsidiary in which GE wasn't number one, or at least second. Within four years, GE fired 112,000 of more than 411,000 employees, and annually terminated 10% of its executives who had the worst records, while steadily increasing revenues, and other corporations followed the strategy.
• One day after the mining disaster in Kentucky, thirteen coal miners were killed in an explosion at Tennessee Conolidation Coal Company Mine No. 21
  No. 21 Mine explosion
  On December 8, 1981, 13 coal miners lost their lives as the result of an explosion at the No. 21 Mine, an underground coal mine near Whitwell, Tennessee....
  
   in Whitwell, Tennessee
  Whitwell, Tennessee
  Whitwell is a city in Marion County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 1,660 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Chattanooga, TN–GA Metropolitan Statistical Area.-History:...
  
  .
• Arthur Scargill
  Arthur Scargill
  Arthur Scargill is a British politician who was President of the National Union of Mineworkers from 1982 to 2002, leading the union through the 1984–85 miners' strike, a key event in British labour and political history...
  
   was elected President of Britain's National Union of Mineworkers, receiving 70% of the votes cast in the race to succeed outgoing NUM President Joe Gormley
  Joe Gormley
  Joseph Gormley, Baron Gormley, OBE was President of the National Union of Mineworkers from 1971 to 1982, and a Labour peer....
  
  .
• As labor unrest continued in Poland
  Poland
  Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
  
  , 100,000 Soviet troops massed along the nations' common border, apparently poised for an invasion if the crisis continued.

December 9, 1981 (Wednesday)

• Mumia Abu-Jamal
  Mumia Abu-Jamal
  Mumia Abu-Jamal was convicted of the 1981 murder of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner and sentenced to death. He has been described as "perhaps the world's best known death-row inmate", and his sentence is one of the most debated today...
  
  , formerly Wesley Cook, was arrested after the murder in Philadelphia of police officer Daniel Faulkner
  Daniel Faulkner
  Daniel J. Faulkner was a police officer in the American city of Philadelphia who was shot and killed in the line of duty. Mumia Abu-Jamal was convicted of first-degree murder for the shooting and sentenced to death...
  
  . After writing his own book from prison, Live from Death Row (Addison-Wesley, 1995), Abu-Jamal would be called by some "the world's most renowned political prisoner".

December 10, 1981 (Thursday)

• Javier Perez de Cuellar
  Javier Pérez de Cuéllar
  Javier Pérez de Cuéllar y de la Guerra is a Peruvian diplomat who served as the fifth Secretary-General of the United Nations from January 1, 1982 to December 31, 1991. He studied in Colegio San Agustín of Lima, and then at Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú. In 1995, he ran unsuccessfully...
  
   of Peru
  Peru
  Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
  
   was nominated as the fifth Secretary General of the United Nations by the U.N. Security Council, approved his nomination 10-1, with four abstentions. Perez had been the only one of seven candidates whose application had not been vetoed by at least one of the five permanent members of the Security Council. On the first 18 ballots, incumbent Kurt Waldheim
  Kurt Waldheim
  Kurt Josef Waldheim was an Austrian diplomat and politician. Waldheim was the fourth Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1972 to 1981, and the ninth President of Austria, from 1986 to 1992...
  
   of Austria, was repeatedly vetoed by China in his bid for a third five-year term, while Tanzanian Foreign Minister Salim Salim was blocked by U.S. vetoes. Sadruddin Aga Khan was runner up to Perez, but a 9-2 vote in his favor included one veto among the no votes. The General Assembly approved Perez by acclamation the next day.
• Spain
  Spain
  Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
  
   was accepted as a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) after signing the Protocol of Accession
  Enlargement of NATO
  Enlargement of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is the process of including new member states in NATO. NATO is a military alliance of states in Europe and North America whose organization constitutes a system of collective defence. The process of joining the alliance is governed by Article...
  
   in Brussels
  Brussels
  Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
  
  .

December 11, 1981 (Friday)

• El Mozote massacre
  El Mozote massacre
  The El Mozote Massacre took place in and around the village of El Mozote, in Morazán department, El Salvador, on December 11, 1981, when Salvadoran armed forces trained by the United States military killed at least 200 and up to 1000 civilians in an anti-guerrilla campaign during the Salvadoran...
  
  : In El Salvador
  El Salvador
  El Salvador or simply Salvador is the smallest and the most densely populated country in Central America. The country's capital city and largest city is San Salvador; Santa Ana and San Miguel are also important cultural and commercial centers in the country and in all of Central America...
  
  , army units killed 900 civilians, including women and children, in three towns, with more than half (482) shot in the town of El Mozote. More than a decade later, investigators found 143 skeletons buried at the town, and estimated that 85% of them had been children under 14.
• In his last professional boxing match, former world champion Muhammad Ali
  Muhammad Ali
  Muhammad Ali is an American former professional boxer, philanthropist and social activist...
  
   lost to Trevor Berbick
  Trevor Berbick
  Trevor Berbick was a Jamaican-Canadian heavyweight boxer who fought as a professional from 1976 until 2000. Berbick briefly held the WBC heavyweight championship in 1986 , before losing it to 20-year old Mike Tyson, via 2nd-round TKO...
  
  . The 40-year old Ali, attempting a comeback, lost a unanimous decision after ten rounds in the fight in Nassau
  Nassau, Bahamas
  Nassau is the capital, largest city, and commercial centre of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas. The city has a population of 248,948 , 70 percent of the entire population of The Bahamas...
  
  , The Bahamas
  The Bahamas
  The Bahamas , officially the Commonwealth of the Bahamas, is a nation consisting of 29 islands, 661 cays, and 2,387 islets . It is located in the Atlantic Ocean north of Cuba and Hispaniola , northwest of the Turks and Caicos Islands, and southeast of the United States...
  
  .
• The U.S. Department of State effectively banned travel by Americans to Libya, directing that U.S. passports were not to be used to go there.
• Roberto Viola, who had been on sick leave since November 21 when he was replaced by Interior Minister Horacio Liendo, was dismissed by the military junta that had placed him in power. General Leopoldo Galtieri
  Leopoldo Galtieri
  Leopoldo Fortunato Galtieri Castelli was an Argentine general and President of Argentina from December 22, 1981 to June 18, 1982, during the last military dictatorship . The death squad Intelligence Battalion 601 directly reported to him...
  
  , head of the three man junta, replaced Viola with Rear Admiral Carlos Lacoste
  Carlos Lacoste
  Carlos Alberto Lacoste was an Argentine navy vice-admiral and politician who briefly served as interim de facto President of Argentina.-Earlier years:...
  
   until assuming the office on December 22.
• Born: Javier Saviola
  Javier Saviola
  Javier Pedro Saviola Fernández is an Argentine professional footballer who plays for S.L. Benfica in Portugal, as a striker....
  
  , Argentine soccer player, in Buenos Aires
  Buenos Aires
  Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
  
  

December 12, 1981 (Saturday)

• Meeting in Gdansk
  Gdansk
  Gdańsk is a Polish city on the Baltic coast, at the centre of the country's fourth-largest metropolitan area.The city lies on the southern edge of Gdańsk Bay , in a conurbation with the city of Gdynia, spa town of Sopot, and suburban communities, which together form a metropolitan area called the...
  
  , the national commission of the Polish independent union Solidarity discussed lobbying for a referendum to set up multiparty elections in Communist Poland
  Poland
  Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
  
  . By then, police across the nation had been informed by the government that the first phase of arrests would begin at 11:30 pm. At 11:57 pm, all 3.4 million private telephones in Poland were cut off.
• TK-208, the first of the Soviet Union's Typhoon class submarine
  Typhoon class submarine
  The Project 941 or Akula, Russian "Акула" class submarine is a type of nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine deployed by the Soviet Navy in the 1980s...
  
  s and the largest sub that had been built up to that time, was commissioned. The previous largest submarine to be commissioned had been the USS Ohio, first of the Ohio class submarine
  Ohio class submarine
  The Ohio class is a class of nuclear-powered submarines used by the United States Navy. The United States has 18 Ohio-class submarines:...
  
  s, which had been commissioned on November 11, 1981.
• West Germany
  West Germany
  West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....
  
   Chancellor Helmut Schmidt
  Helmut Schmidt
  Helmut Heinrich Waldemar Schmidt is a German Social Democratic politician who served as Chancellor of West Germany from 1974 to 1982. Prior to becoming chancellor, he had served as Minister of Defence and Minister of Finance. He had also served briefly as Minister of Economics and as acting...
  
   visited East Germany, where he was welcomed by SED First Secretary Erich Honecker
  Erich Honecker
  Erich Honecker was a German communist politician who led the German Democratic Republic as General Secretary of the Socialist Unity Party from 1971 until 1989, serving as Head of State as well from Willi Stoph's relinquishment of that post in 1976....
  
  , who proclaimed in a toast, "Whatever differences may exist between our countries, either politically or socially, we cannot and must not permit ourselves to be pulled away from our responsibility to the people of Europe.
• Died: Queen Khamphoui of Laos
  Laos
  Laos Lao: ສາທາລະນະລັດ ປະຊາທິປະໄຕ ປະຊາຊົນລາວ Sathalanalat Paxathipatai Paxaxon Lao, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic, is a landlocked country in Southeast Asia, bordered by Burma and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the south and Thailand to the west...
  
  , 69, former Queen Consort of King Savang Vatthana who had ruled from 1959 to 1975; in a Communist re-education camp. She was preceded in death by her husband and her son, former Crown Prince Vong Savang, who had died in the internment camp at Sop Hao in 1979.
• Died: Charles P. Alexander, American entomologist who cataloged over 10,000 species of insects, primarily crane flies in the genus Tipula, during his career.

December 13, 1981 (Sunday)

• Going on television and radio at 6:00 in the morning, General Wojciech Jaruzelski
  Wojciech Jaruzelski
  Wojciech Witold Jaruzelski is a retired Polish military officer and Communist politician. He was the last Communist leader of Poland from 1981 to 1989, Prime Minister from 1981 to 1985 and the country's head of state from 1985 to 1990. He was also the last commander-in-chief of the Polish People's...
  
   informed viewers and listeners that he had declared martial law in Poland
  Martial law in Poland
  Martial law in Poland refers to the period of time from December 13, 1981 to July 22, 1983, when the authoritarian government of the People's Republic of Poland drastically restricted normal life by introducing martial law in an attempt to crush political opposition to it. Thousands of opposition...
  
  , although he used the phrase "stari wojenny", literally, "a state of war". The army and police arrested thousands of members of the independent union Solidarity.
• Died: Dewey "Pigmeat" Markham
  Pigmeat Markham
  Dewey "Pigmeat" Markham was an African-American entertainer. Though best known as a comedian, Markham was also a singer, dancer, and actor...
  
  , 77, African-American comedian

December 14, 1981 (Monday)

• Fourteen years after its capture from Syria in the Six Day War, the Golan Heights was annexed to Israel
  Israel
  The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
  
   by a 63-21 vote of the Knesset
  Knesset
  The Knesset is the unicameral legislature of Israel, located in Givat Ram, Jerusalem.-Role in Israeli Government :The legislative branch of the Israeli government, the Knesset passes all laws, elects the President and Prime Minister , approves the cabinet, and supervises the work of the government...
  
  . The Ramat Hagolan Law declared that "the law, jurisdiction and administration of the State of Israel will apply in the territory of the Golan Heights".
• Died: Victor Kugler
  Victor Kugler
  Victor Kugler was one of the people who helped hide Anne Frank and her family and friends during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. In Anne Frank's posthumously published diary, The Diary of a Young Girl, he was referred to under the name Mr...
  
  , 81, Dutch businessman who hid his business partner Otto Frank
  Otto Frank
  Otto Heinrich "Pim" Frank was a German-born businessman and the father of Anne Frank and Margot Frank...
  
   and family, including Anne Frank
  Anne Frank
  Annelies Marie "Anne" Frank is one of the most renowned and most discussed Jewish victims of the Holocaust. Acknowledged for the quality of her writing, her diary has become one of the world's most widely read books, and has been the basis for several plays and films.Born in the city of Frankfurt...
  
   above his Amsterdam offices for 25 months

December 15, 1981 (Tuesday)

• The first suicide car bombing was carried out, destroying Iraq
  Iraq
  Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
  
  's embassy in Beirut
  Beirut
  Beirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon, with a population ranging from 1 million to more than 2 million . Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's Mediterranean coastline, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport, and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan...
  
  , Lebanon
  Lebanon
  Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...
  
   and killing 61 people, including Ambassador Abdul Razzak Lafta. Although car bombs had been set off before, and although suicide bombers had used cars before to drive to a target, the Beirut attack involved packing a vehicle with explosives and detonating them while driving.
• Argentina's Chief of Naval Operations, Juan Jose Lombardo, was asked by President Galtieri to draw up plans to recapture the Falkland Islands
  Falkland Islands
  The Falkland Islands are an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean, located about from the coast of mainland South America. The archipelago consists of East Falkland, West Falkland and 776 lesser islands. The capital, Stanley, is on East Falkland...
  
   from the United Kingdom. Lombardo's proposal was completed in five days.
• Born: Roman Pavlyuchenko
  Roman Pavlyuchenko
  Roman Anatolyevich Pavlyuchenko is an footballer who currently plays as a centre forward for English Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur and for the Russian national team.-Spartak Moscow:...
  
  , Russian soccer football player, in Mostovskoy
  Mostovskoy
  Mostovskoy is an urban locality and the administrative center of Mostovsky District of Krasnodar Krai, Russia, located on the left bank of the Laba River. Population:...
  
  ; Thomas Herrion
  Thomas Herrion
  Thomas Herrion was an American football player for the San Francisco 49ers. Born in Fort Worth, Texas, Herrion, a 6-foot-3 , 310-pound guard, played college football first at Kilgore College at the junior college level before transferring to the University of Utah where he blocked for current...
  
  , American NFL player who died during a game; in Fort Worth, Texas
  Fort Worth, Texas
  Fort Worth is the 16th-largest city in the United States of America and the fifth-largest city in the state of Texas. Located in North Central Texas, just southeast of the Texas Panhandle, the city is a cultural gateway into the American West and covers nearly in Tarrant, Parker, Denton, and...
  
  ; (d. 2005)
• Died: Catherine T. MacArthur
  Catherine T. MacArthur
  Catherine T. MacArthur was the wife of U.S. businessman and philanthropist John D. MacArthur and was an active participant in his businesses and philanthropies. One of the ten largest philanthropic foundations in the United States, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, is named after...
  
  , 71, American philanthropist; and Karl Struss
  Karl Struss
  Karl Struss, A.S.C. was a photographer and a cinematographer of the 1920s through the 1950s. He was also one of the earliest pioneers of 3-D films. While he mostly worked on films, he was also one of the cinematographers for the television series Broken Arrow.He was born in New York, New York and...
  
  , 95, American cinematographer

December 16, 1981 (Wednesday)

• Pacification of Wujek
  Pacification of Wujek
  The Pacification of Wujek was a strike-breaking action by the Polish police and army at the Wujek Coal Mine in Katowice, Poland, culminating in the massacre of nine striking miners on December 16, 1981....
  
  : Three days after martial law had gone into effect, riot police in Poland
  Poland
  Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
  
   broke up a sit-down strike by 2,000 workers at the Wujek coal mine in Katowice
  Katowice
  Katowice is a city in Silesia in southern Poland, on the Kłodnica and Rawa rivers . Katowice is located in the Silesian Highlands, about north of the Silesian Beskids and about southeast of the Sudetes Mountains.It is the central district of the Upper Silesian Metropolis, with a population of 2...
  
  . The police brought in tanks and fired into the crowd, even shooting at emergency workers attempting to render aid. In the fighting, nine miners and four ZOMO police were killed. A 100-foot tall concrete cross was erected ten years later to commemorate the deaths, and 25 years after the shootings, former ZOMO commander Romuald Cieslak and 14 officers were sentenced to prison.

December 17, 1981 (Thursday)

• Brigadier General James L. Dozier
  James L. Dozier
  James Lee Dozier is a retired US Army general officer. In December 1981, he was kidnapped by the leftist Italian Red Brigades Marxist terrorist group. He was rescued by Italian anti-terrorist forces after 42 days of captivity. General Dozier was the deputy Chief of Staff at NATO's Southern...
  
  , one of the highest ranking U.S. Army officers stationed in Italy
  Italy
  Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
  
   was kidnapped from his apartment in Verona
  Verona
  Verona ; German Bern, Dietrichsbern or Welschbern) is a city in the Veneto, northern Italy, with approx. 265,000 inhabitants and one of the seven chef-lieus of the region. It is the second largest city municipality in the region and the third of North-Eastern Italy. The metropolitan area of Verona...
  
   by the terrorist group the Red Brigades
  Red Brigades
  The Red Brigades was a Marxist-Leninist terrorist organisation, based in Italy, which was responsible for numerous violent incidents, assassinations, and robberies during the so-called "Years of Lead"...
  
  . Four men posing as plumbers, led by Antonio Savasta, took Dozier hostage and held him for ransom in an apartment in Padua
  Padua
  Padua is a city and comune in the Veneto, northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Padua and the economic and communications hub of the area. Padua's population is 212,500 . The city is sometimes included, with Venice and Treviso, in the Padua-Treviso-Venice Metropolitan Area, having...
  
  . A special Italian counter-terrorist team rescued Dozier on January 28, 1981.
• The Confederation of Senegambia agreement signed at Dakar
  Dakar
  Dakar is the capital city and largest city of Senegal. It is located on the Cap-Vert Peninsula on the Atlantic coast and is the westernmost city on the African mainland...
  
  , Senegal
  Senegal
  Senegal , officially the Republic of Senegal , is a country in western Africa. It owes its name to the Sénégal River that borders it to the east and north...
  
  , effective February 1982, with Gambia's President as the Senegambian Vice-President, and a legislature that had two-thirds of the seats for Senegalese deputies. The Confederation was dissolved on September 1, 1989)
• The Emergency Mobilization Preparedness Board was established in the United States by order of President Reagan.
• Died: Mehmet Shehu
  Mehmet Shehu
  Mehmet Ismail Shehu was an Albanian communist politician who served as premier of Albania from 1954 to 1981...
  
  , 68 Prime Minister of Albania. The previous day, Albania's leader Enver Hoxha
  Enver Hoxha
  Enver Halil Hoxha was a Marxist–Leninist revolutionary andthe leader of Albania from the end of World War II until his death in 1985, as the First Secretary of the Party of Labour of Albania...
  
   bitterly denounced Shehu at a meeting of the Politburo of the Albanian Communist Party, after Shehu refused to resign in favor of Ramiz Alia
  Ramiz Alia
  was the second and last communist leader of Albania from 1985-91, and the President of the People's Socialist Republic of Albania from 1991 to 1992, and also the first President of the post communist Albania elected in 1991-92. He had been designated as successor by Enver Hoxha and took power after...
  
  . Albanian newspapers and radio announced that Shehu had committed suicide because of a "nervous crisis".
• All veterans of the Vietnam War
  Vietnam War
  The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
  
  , Robert U. Muller, Michael Harbert, Tom Bird and John Terzano became the first Americans to visit Vietnam since the Communist victory there, arriving in Hanoi
  Hanoi
  Hanoi , is the capital of Vietnam and the country's second largest city. Its population in 2009 was estimated at 2.6 million for urban districts, 6.5 million for the metropolitan jurisdiction. From 1010 until 1802, it was the most important political centre of Vietnam...
  
   as guests of the Communist government.
• Died: Edwin Erich Dwinger, 83, German novelist

December 18, 1981 (Friday)

• Four days after Isreael annexed the Golan Heights, the U.S. terminated its recently made Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Israel. The MOU was not reinstated until May 17, 1983.
• Robert Patlescu, 19 months old, fell from his parents' apartment on the 6th floor of a building in Manhattan. His fall was broken by shrubbery, and he landed in soft mud, surviving with no broken bones or even a scratch.
• Died: Eugene Conley
  Eugene Conley
  Eugene Conley was a celebrated American operatic tenor.Born in Lynn, Massachusetts, Conley studied under Ettore Verna, and made his official debut as the Duke of Mantua in Rigoletto, at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in 1940...
  
  , 73, American operatic tenor and lead singer for the Metropolitan Opera
• Died: Albert Deutscher, 61, member of the Selbstschutz
  Selbstschutz
  Selbstschutz stands for two organisations:# A name used by a number of paramilitary organisations created by ethnic Germans in Central and Eastern Europe# A name for self-defence measures and units in ethnic German, Austrian, and Swiss civil defence....
  
  , a Nazi paramilitary group that had carried out the mass murder of hundreds of Jewish civilians in the Ukraine. Detuscher moved to the U.S. and became a naturalized citizen in 1957. The day after a petition was filed to revoke his citizenship, he was killed by a train.

December 19, 1981 (Saturday)

• Penlee lifeboat disaster
  Penlee lifeboat disaster
  The Penlee lifeboat disaster occurred on 19 December 1981 off the coast of Cornwall, in England, UK. The Penlee Lifeboat went to the aid of the coaster Union Star after its engines failed in heavy seas...
  
  : Sixteen people died in the worst British sea disaster since 1946. The Union Star, with a crew of eight, was on its maiden voyage when a hurricane drove it onto the rocks at Cornwall
  Cornwall
  Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...
  
  . Eight volunteers from the town of Penlee guided the lifeboat Solomon Browne to the scene and rescued four people. Before the others could be pulled to safety, the waves drove the Union Star into the lifeboat, and everyone was killed as both boats capsized.
• The Tupolev Tu-160
  Tupolev Tu-160
  The Tupolev Tu-160 is a supersonic, variable-sweep wing heavy strategic bomber designed by the Tupolev Design Bureau in the Soviet Union. Although several civil and military transport aircraft are larger in overall dimensions, the Tu-160 is currently the world's largest combat aircraft, largest...
  
   "Blackjack" longe range strategic bomber was first flown. The airplane was put into production in in 1986, but discontinued in 1992 after the Cold War
  Cold War
  The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
  
   had ended.
• Dwight Braxton (later Dwight Muhammad Qawi
  Dwight Muhammad Qawi
  Dwight Muhammad Qawi is a former world boxing champion in the light heavyweight and cruiserweight divisions...
  
  ) defeated Matthew Saad Muhammad
  Matthew Saad Muhammad
  Matthew Saad Muhammad is a former boxer who was the world's light heavyweight champion.Saad Muhammad's mother died when he was an infant, and he and his elder brother were sent to live with an aunt. When he was five, his aunt could not afford to look after both of them and she instructed Saad...
  
   to win the WBC light heavyweight boxing championship.
• Archbishop Luigi Poggi
  Luigi Poggi
  Luigi Poggi was an Italian cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church.-Early life:Born in Piacenza, Poggi did all his studies prior to priestly ordination in that city and was sent to Rome in 1944 primarily to study diplomacy at the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy...
  
   visited Polish General Jaruzelski and delivered a personal appeal from Pope John Paul II
  Pope John Paul II
  Blessed Pope John Paul II , born Karol Józef Wojtyła , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church and Sovereign of Vatican City from 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005, at of age. His was the second-longest documented pontificate, which lasted ; only Pope Pius IX ...
  
  , asking that further bloodshed be avoided during the implementation of martial law.
• The Kingdom of Spain adopted a new national coat of arms, and a new flag displaying the symbol.
• Died: Selma Fraiberg
  Selma Fraiberg
  Selma Fraiberg was a child psychoanalyst, author and social worker. She studied infants with congenital blindness in the 1970s. She found that blind babies had three problems to overcome: learning to recognize parents from sound alone, learning about permanence of objects, acquiring a typical or...
  
  , 63, American child psychologist and advocate

December 20, 1981 (Sunday)

• Dreamgirls
  Dreamgirls
  Dreamgirls is a Broadway musical, with music by Henry Krieger and lyrics and book by Tom Eyen. Based upon the show business aspirations and successes of R&B acts such as The Supremes, The Shirelles, James Brown, Jackie Wilson, and others, the musical follows the story of a young female singing trio...
  
  , directed and choreographed by [Michael Bennett]], premiered on Broadway at the Imperial Theater. It would win six Tony awards and run for 1,521 performances.
• "In the Land of the Khmer Rouge", by Christopher Jones, was published as the cover story for the New York Times Magazine, as the investigative reporter described a month with guerillas fighting against the Vietnamese in Cambodia. Less than a month later, Alexander Cockburn
  Alexander Cockburn
  Alexander Claud Cockburn is an American political journalist. Cockburn was brought up in Ireland but has lived and worked in the United States since 1972. Together with Jeffrey St. Clair, he edits the political newsletter CounterPunch...
  
   of The Village Voice
  The Village Voice
  The Village Voice is a free weekly newspaper and news and features website in New York City that features investigative articles, analysis of current affairs and culture, arts and music coverage, and events listings for New York City...
  
  noted that parts of the report had been plagiarized from the André Malraux
  André Malraux
  André Malraux DSO was a French adventurer, award-winning author, and statesman. Having traveled extensively in Indochina and China, Malraux was noted especially for his novel entitled La Condition Humaine , which won the Prix Goncourt...
  
   novel The Royal Way, and began questioning the story. By February, the New York Times had to concede that it had been the victim of a hoax.
• Rajvendra Sarswat was born in India.
• At a cabinet meeting convened by Prime Minister Menahem Begin, Israel's Defense Minister Ariel Sharon
  Ariel Sharon
  Ariel Sharon is an Israeli statesman and retired general, who served as Israel’s 11th Prime Minister. He has been in a permanent vegetative state since suffering a stroke on 4 January 2006....
  
   first presented the contingency plan for an invasion of Lebanon
  Lebanon
  Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...
  
   to drive out the Palestine Liberation Organization
  Palestine Liberation Organization
  The Palestine Liberation Organization is a political and paramilitary organization which was created in 1964. It is recognized as the "sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people" by the United Nations and over 100 states with which it holds diplomatic relations, and has enjoyed...
  
   from its neighbor to the north. Many of the ministers were shocked at the plans to begin a war, and no votge was taken at that time on whether to approve the plan. The operation was given the go ahead the following year.
• The communications satellite Marisat
  Marisat
  Marisat satellites were the first maritime telecommunications satellites and were designed to provide dependable telecommunications for commercial shipping and the U.S Navy from stable geosynchronous orbital locations over the three major ocean regions. The three Marisat satellites, F1, F2, and F3,...
  
   was successfully launched into geosynchronous orbit from French Guiana
  French Guiana
  French Guiana is an overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department located on the northern Atlantic coast of South America. It has borders with two nations, Brazil to the east and south, and Suriname to the west...
  
   in the fourth test of the Ariane rocket.
• Poland
  Poland
  Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
  
  's Ambassador to the United States, Romuald Spasowski
  Romuald Spasowski
  F. Romuald Spasowski , once an ardent Communist and Poland's ambassador to the United States, is best known for having defected at the height of the Solidarity crisis in 1981.-Early life:...
  
  , defected. Two days later, he was welcomed at the White House by President Reagan.

December 21, 1981 (Monday)

• The treaty creating the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa
  Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa
  The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, is a free trade area with nineteen member states stretching from Libya to Zimbabwe. COMESA formed in December 1994, replacing a Preferential Trade Area which had existed since 1981...
  
   (COMESA) was signed in Zambia
  Zambia
  Zambia , officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. The neighbouring countries are the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Tanzania to the north-east, Malawi to the east, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia to the south, and Angola to the west....
  
   at Lusaka
  Lusaka
  Lusaka is the capital and largest city of Zambia. It is located in the southern part of the central plateau, at an elevation of about 1,300 metres . It has a population of about 1.7 million . It is a commercial centre as well as the centre of government, and the four main highways of Zambia head...
  
   by representatives from 15 nations. The agreement would become effective on September 30, 1982.
• Second separation of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton
• In a college basketball in Peoria, Illinois
  Peoria, Illinois
  Peoria is the largest city on the Illinois River and the county seat of Peoria County, Illinois, in the United States. It is named after the Peoria tribe. As of the 2010 census, the city was the seventh-most populated in Illinois, with a population of 115,007, and is the third-most populated...
  
  , the University of Cincinnati
  University of Cincinnati
  The University of Cincinnati is a comprehensive public research university in Cincinnati, Ohio, and a part of the University System of Ohio....
  
   defeated Bradley University
  Bradley University
  Bradley University, founded in 1897, is a private, co-educational university located in Peoria, Illinois. It is a small institution with an enrollment of approximately 6,100 undergraduate and postgraduate students and a full-time faculty of approximately 350....
  
  , 75-73 after an NCAA Division I record of seven periods of overtime. Cincinnati had tied the game 61-61 after being down by four points with 0:45 left in regulation. The 40 minute game then continued for 35 more minutes until Doug Schlomer scored the winning basket with :01 left to end the game. The only other equally long games were in Division II (February 18, 1956, as Black Hills State College defeated Yankton College
  Yankton College
  Yankton College was a small liberal arts college in Yankton, South Dakota, affiliated with the Congregational Christian Churches .Founded in 1881, it was the first institution of higher learning in the Dakota Territory...
  
  , 80-79) and in Division III (November 23, 2010 as Skidmore College
  Skidmore College
  Skidmore College is a private, independent, liberal arts college with an enrollment of approximately 2,500 students. The college is located in the town of Saratoga Springs, New York State....
  
   beat Southern Vermont College
  Southern Vermont College
  Southern Vermont College is a private, four-year liberal arts college located on the former Edward Everett Estate near Bennington, Vermont in the southwestern corner of the state bordering New York and Massachusetts.-Overview:...
  
  , 128-123).

December 22, 1981 (Tuesday)

• The Corporate Angel Network
  Corporate Angel Network
  The Corporate Angel Network is an American non-profit charitable organization whose mission is to arrange free air travel for cancer patients to treatment centers by using the empty seats on corporate aircraft flying on routine business. They are based in White Plains, NY, and operate from an...
  
  , a program where unused space on corporate jets is donated for worthy causes, made its first flight, transporting a young boy from White Plains to Detroit for surgery.
• The Union Pacific Railroad
  Union Pacific Railroad
  The Union Pacific Railroad , headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, is the largest railroad network in the United States. James R. Young is president, CEO and Chairman....
  
   acquired the Western Pacific Railroad
  Western Pacific Railroad
  The Western Pacific Railroad was a Class I railroad in the United States. It was formed in 1903 as an attempt to break the near-monopoly the Southern Pacific Railroad had on rail service into northern California...
  
  .

December 23, 1981 (Wednesday)

• U.S. President Reagan wrote to Soviet President Brezhnev on the direct communications link between the two nations, to urge an end to the Polish martial law. "The recent events in Poland clearly are not an 'internal matter'," Reagan told Brezhnev, "and in writing to you, as the head of the Soviet government, I am not misaddressing my communication." That evening, Reagan announced sanctions against Poland in a televised address to Americans. Reagan's letter was declassified in 1995.
• In Nicaragua
  Nicaragua
  Nicaragua is the largest country in the Central American American isthmus, bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. The country is situated between 11 and 14 degrees north of the Equator in the Northern Hemisphere, which places it entirely within the tropics. The Pacific Ocean...
  
  , soldiers of the Sandinista regime massacred 75 miners who had been demanding back wages for work unpaid.
• Died: Reg Ansett
  Reg Ansett
  Sir Reginald Myles "Reg" Ansett KBE was an Australian businessman and aviator; best known for founding Ansett Transport Industries Limited, which owned one of Australia's two leading domestic airlines between 1957 and 2001...
  
  , 72, Australian businessman and aviator; and Samuel L. Kountz
  Samuel L. Kountz
  Dr. Samuel L. Kountz was an African American kidney transplantation surgeon from Lexa, Arkansas. He was most distinguished for his pioneering work in the field of kidney transplantations, and in research, discoveries, and inventions in Renal Science. In 1961, while working with Dr...
  
  , 51, African-American scientist who perfected successful kidney transplantation; Luther Harris Evans, 79, Librarian of Congress 1949-53

December 24, 1981 (Thursday)

• The Inland Navigation Rules
  Inland navigation
  Inland navigation is transport with ships via inland water between inland ports or quays and wharfs.-See also:* Code Européen des Voies de la Navigation Intérieure -External links:...
  
   took effect on all inland waterways of the United States except for the Great Lakes, which were covered effective March 1, 1983.
• Born: Dima Bilan
  Dima Bilan
  ' is a Russian actor and pop singer . Bilan represented Russia at the Eurovision Song Contest 2006 with "Never Let You Go", finishing second, and he won the contest in 2008 in Belgrade, with the song "Believe". He has had several Russian no. 1 hits....
  
  , Russian pop-singer, in Ust-Dzheguta
  Ust-Dzheguta
  Ust-Dzheguta is a town and the administrative center of Ust-Dzhegutinsky District of the Karachay-Cherkess Republic, Russia, located in the Caucasus Mountains on the right bank of the Kuban River south of Cherkessk. Population:...
  
  

December 25, 1981 (Friday)

• On Christmas morning, Soviet President Brezhnev responded directly to U.S. President Reagan, "calling upon you and the government of the USA to end at last the interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign state... Essentially, in your current communication, you have placed your personal signature upon the fact that gross interference in the internal affairs of Poland is the official policy of the United States. We have condemned and continue to condemn such a policy. We consider it unacceptable."
• The Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party reversed a prior endorsement of economic reforms by Premier Zhao Ziyang
  Zhao Ziyang
  Zhao Ziyang was a high-ranking politician in the People's Republic of China . He was the third Premier of the People's Republic of China from 1980 to 1987, and General Secretary of the Communist Party of China from 1987 to 1989....
  
  , who had advocated western-style management and economic incentives to motivate workers. The CCP declared that the stated policy of Mao Zedong
  Mao Zedong
  Mao Zedong, also transliterated as Mao Tse-tung , and commonly referred to as Chairman Mao , was a Chinese Communist revolutionary, guerrilla warfare strategist, Marxist political philosopher, and leader of the Chinese Revolution...
  
   of "putting politics in command of industry", had been correct, and cited the Daqing oilfields as a model for industrial development.
• Died: Heinrich Welker
  Heinrich Welker
  Heinrich Johann Welker was a German theoretical and applied physicist who invented the "transistron", a form of transistor made at Westinghouse independently of the first successful transistor made at Bell Laboratories...
  
  , 69, German scientist who co-invented the "transistron", a form of transistor, independently of that invented by William Shockley and others; and Wallace Pratt
  Wallace Pratt
  Wallace E. Pratt was a pioneer American petroleum geologist.Born in Phillipsburg, Kansas, March 15, 1885, Pratt began his career in geology as an assistant with the Kansas Geological Survey shortly after he graduated from the University of Kansas in 1907 with a bachelor's degree.From 1909 to 1916,...
  
  , 96, American pioneer in petroleum geology
  Petroleum geology
  Petroleum geology refers to the specific set of geological disciplines that are applied to the search for hydrocarbons .-Sedimentary basin analysis:...
  
  .

December 26, 1981 (Saturday)

• The College of Saint Thomas More
  College of Saint Thomas More
  The College of Saint Thomas More is a private, Catholic liberal arts college based in Fort Worth, Texas. It was founded in 1981 as the Saint Thomas More Institute. It is located next to the Texas Christian University campus. It awards a Bachelor of Arts degree.-References:*...
  
   was founded in Fort Worth, Texas
  Fort Worth, Texas
  Fort Worth is the 16th-largest city in the United States of America and the fifth-largest city in the state of Texas. Located in North Central Texas, just southeast of the Texas Panhandle, the city is a cultural gateway into the American West and covers nearly in Tarrant, Parker, Denton, and...
  
   as a small Roman Catholic liberal arts college.

December 27, 1981 (Sunday)

• In cricket
  Cricket
  Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
  
  , bowler Dennis Lillee
  Dennis Lillee
  Dennis Keith Lillee, AM, MBE is a former Australian cricketer rated as the "outstanding fast bowler of his generation"...
  
   tied and then broke the record that had been set by Lance Gibbs
  Lance Gibbs
  Lancelot Richard Gibbs is a former West Indies cricketer, one of the most successful spin bowlers in Test cricket history. He took 309 Test wickets, only the second player to pass 300, the first spinner to pass that milestone, and had an exceptional economy rate of under two runs per over...
  
   for most Test wickets
  Hit wicket
  Hit wicket is a method of dismissal in the sport of cricket. This method of dismissal is governed by Law 35 of the laws of cricket. The striker is out "hit wicket" if, after the bowler has entered his delivery stride and while the ball is in play, his wicket is put down by his bat or his person...
  
   in a career, getting his 310th wicket (analogous to a strikeout thrown by a baseball pitcher) in Test cricket
  Test cricket
  Test cricket is the longest form of the sport of cricket. Test matches are played between national representative teams with "Test status", as determined by the International Cricket Council , with four innings played between two teams of 11 players over a period of up to a maximum five days...
  
   play. Bowling for Australia in the second game of a Test match against the West Indies, Lillee set the new record at Melbourne
  Melbourne
  Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
  
   while bowling to Larry Gomes
  Larry Gomes
  Hilary Angelo Gomes is a former West Indian cricketer.He toured England with the West Indian Schoolboys team in 1967 and he made his first-class debut as a left-handed batsman for Trinidad and Tobogo versus the New Zealanders in 1971/72. He joined Middlesex in 1972 and played between 1973 and 1976...
  
  . Lillee finished his career in 1984 with 355 Test wickets, a mark surpassed by Ian Botham
  Ian Botham
  Sir Ian Terence Botham OBE is a former England Test cricketer and Test team captain, and current cricket commentator. He was a genuine all-rounder with 14 centuries and 383 wickets in Test cricket, and remains well-known by his nickname "Beefy"...
  
   of England in 1976.
• Born: Emilie de Ravin
  Emilie de Ravin
  Emilie de Ravin born 27 December 1981)is an Australian actress. She is commonly associated with her roles as Tess Harding on Roswell and Claire Littleton on the ABC drama Lost....
  
  , Australian actress, in Mount Eliza, Victoria
  Mount Eliza, Victoria
  Mount Eliza is an outer suburb south-east of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is in the Local Government Area of the Shire of Mornington Peninsula...
  
  ; and Yuvraj Singh
  Yuvraj Singh
  Yuvraj Singh Bhandal is an Indian cricketer, and the son of former Indian fast bowler and Punjabi movie star Yograj Singh. He has been a member of the Indian cricket team since 2000 and played his first Test match in 2003. He was the vice captain of the ODI team from late-2007 to late-2008...
  
  , Indian cricketer, in Chandigarh
  Chandigarh
  Chandigarh is a union territory of India that serves as the capital of two states, Haryana and Punjab. The name Chandigarh translates as "The Fort of Chandi". The name is from an ancient temple called Chandi Mandir, devoted to the Hindu goddess Chandi, in the city...
  
  
• Died: Hoagy Carmichael
  Hoagy Carmichael
  Howard Hoagland "Hoagy" Carmichael was an American composer, pianist, singer, actor, and bandleader. He is best known for writing "Stardust", "Georgia On My Mind", "The Nearness of You", and "Heart and Soul", four of the most-recorded American songs of all time.Alec Wilder, in his study of the...
  
  , 82, American jazz composer

December 28, 1981 (Monday)

• Elizabeth Jordan Carr
  Elizabeth Jordan Carr
  Elizabeth Jordan Carr was the United States' first baby born from the in-vitro fertilization procedure and the 15th in the world. The technique was conducted at Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk under the direction of Doctors Howard Jones and Georgeanna Seegar Jones, who were the first to...
  
   became the first American "test-tube baby", and 25th in history, at her birth at 7:46 pm in Norfolk, Virginia
  Norfolk, Virginia
  Norfolk is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. With a population of 242,803 as of the 2010 Census, it is Virginia's second-largest city behind neighboring Virginia Beach....
  
  . She had been conceived by in vitro fertilization in the laboratory at Bourn
  Bourn
  Bourn is a small village and civil parish in South Cambridgeshire, England. Surrounding villages include Caxton, Eltisley and Cambourne. It is 8 miles from the county town of Cambridge. The population of the parish was 1,764 people at the time of the 2001 census.Bourn has a Church of England...
  
   in England
  England
  England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
  
  ; coincidentally, Elizabeth's birth weight was 2.61 kilograms, precisely the weight of the first test-tube baby, Louise Brown, in 1978
• Born: Sienna Miller
  Sienna Miller
  Sienna Rose Diana Miller is a British-American actress, model, and fashion designer, best known for her roles in Layer Cake, Alfie, Factory Girl, The Edge of Love and G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. In 2007, the London Film Criticsnamed her British Actress of the Year for Interview...
  
  , American-born British film actress, in New York; and Khalid Boulahrouz
  Khalid Boulahrouz
  Khalid Boulahrouz is a Dutch footballer of Berber Moroccan Rif descent, who plays for the Netherlands and VfB Stuttgart. His nickname is "Khalid the Cannibal" for his ability to "eat up" his opposition....
  
  , Dutch footballer, in Maassluis
  Maassluis
  Maassluis is a town in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland. The municipality had a population of 32,847 in 2004, and covers an area of 10.11 km² .It received city rights in 1811...
  
  
• Died: Allan Dwan
  Allan Dwan
  Allan Dwan was a pioneering Canadian-born American motion picture director, producer and screenwriter.-Early life:...
  
  , 96, Canadian-born film director

December 29, 1981 (Tuesday)

• Romania
  Romania
  Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
  
  n dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu
  Nicolae Ceausescu
  Nicolae Ceaușescu was a Romanian Communist politician. He was General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party from 1965 to 1989, and as such was the country's second and last Communist leader...
  
   ordered demolition to begin in Bucharest
  Bucharest
  Bucharest is the capital municipality, cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmbovița River....
  
   in order to make way for construction of the massive Boulevard of the Victory of Socialism Complex
  Palace of the Parliament
  The Palace of the Parliament in Bucharest, Romania is a multi-purpose building containing both chambers of the Romanian Parliament. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the Palace is the world's largest civilian administrative building, most expensive administrative building, and...
  
  . Thousands of homes, apartment buildings, churches and other buildings were razed to satisfy Ceaușescu's obsession to build the world's largest governmental building and the Boulevard
  Bulevardul Unirii
  Bulevardul Unirii is a major thoroughfare in central Bucharest, Romania. It connects Alba Iulia Square with Constitution Square, and also runs through Unification Square...
  
   itself, with more demolished after construction of the complex began in 1984.
• The Senegambian Confederation was ratified unanimously by the National Assembly of Senegal
  Senegal
  Senegal , officially the Republic of Senegal , is a country in western Africa. It owes its name to the Sénégal River that borders it to the east and north...
  
   and by the Gambian National Assembly on the same day. Senegambia came into existence on February 1, 1982 and lasted for seven years.
• U.S. District Judge Alcee Hastings
  Alcee Hastings
  Alcee Lamar Hastings is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 1993. He is a member of the Democratic Party.-Early life, education and career:...
  
   was indicted for conspiracy to accept a $150,000 bribe. Acquitted in 1983, he remained in office until October 20, 1989, when the U.S. Senate convicted him 69-26 in an impeachment trial. He was elected to Congress in 1992.
• After reviewing Soviet President Brezhnev's letter of December 25, President Reagan followed up trade sanctions against Poland with an embargo on trade with the Soviet Union.
• Dr. Julio Iglesias Pugo
  Julio Iglesias, Sr.
  Dr. Julio Iglesias Puga was a Spanish gynecologist. He was the father of singer Julio Iglesias and grandfather to the singers Enrique Iglesias and Julio Iglesias, Jr.. He became one of the youngest gynecologists of Spain...
  
  , father of singer Julio Iglesias
  Julio Iglesias
  Julio José Iglesias de la Cueva , better known simply as Julio Iglesias, is a Spanish singer who has sold over 300 million records worldwide in 14 languages and released 77 albums. According to Sony Music Entertainment, he is one of the top 15 best selling music artists in history,...
  
  , was kidnapped from his home in Madrid and held for ransom. The senior Iglesias was released after 20 days, but the incident was enough to cause the younger Iglesias to move his family to Miami. The move proved to be a turning point for the family. Iglesias, well-known in the rest of the world, became even more successful as he reached the American market, and his sons Enrique
  Enrique Iglesias
  Enrique Iglesias is a Spanish pop music singer, a son of singer Julio Iglesias.Enrique started his musical career on Mexican label Fonovisa...
  
   and Julio Jr., ages 6 and 8 at the time of the kidnapping, grew up to singing careers of their own.
• Born: Shizuka Arakawa
  Shizuka Arakawa
  is a Japanese figure skater.She is the 2006 Olympic Champion in Ladies Singles and the 2004 World Champion. Arakawa is the first Japanese skater to win an Olympic gold medal in figure skating and the second Japanese skater to win any Olympic medal in figure skating, after Midori Ito, who won silver...
  
  , Japanese figure skater, 2004 World Champion and 2006 Olympic gold medalist, in Shinagawa
• Died: Miroslav Krleža
  Miroslav Krleža
  Miroslav Krleža was a leading Croatian and Yugoslav writer and the dominant figure in cultural life of both Yugoslav states, the Kingdom and the Republic . He has often been proclaimed the greatest Croatian writer of the 20th century.-Biography:Miroslav Krleža was born in Zagreb, modern-day...
  
  , 88, Croatian and Yugoslavian writer

December 30, 1981 (Wednesday)

• Wayne Gretzky
  Wayne Gretzky
  Wayne Douglas Gretzky, CC is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player and former head coach. Nicknamed "The Great One", he is generally regarded as the best player in the history of the National Hockey League , and has been called "the greatest hockey player ever" by many sportswriters,...
  
   had scored 45 goals in 38 NHL games, and was on his way to breaking the record of 50 goals in 50 games that had been set by Maurice Richard
  Maurice Richard
  Joseph Henri Maurice "the Rocket" Richard, Sr., was a French-Canadian professional ice hockey player who played for the Montreal Canadiens of the National Hockey League from 1942 to 1960. The "Rocket" was the most prolific goal-scorer of his era, the first to achieve the feat of 50 goals in 50...
  
   and Mike Bossy
  Mike Bossy
  Michael Dean Bossy is a former Canadian ice hockey player who played for the New York Islanders for his entire career and was part of their four-year reign as Stanley Cup champions in the early 1980s...
  
  , when his Edmonton Oilers
  Edmonton Oilers
  The Edmonton Oilers are a professional ice hockey team based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. They are members of the Northwest Division in the Western Conference of the National Hockey League ....
  
   visited the Philadelphia Flyers
  Philadelphia Flyers
  The Philadelphia Flyers are a professional ice hockey team based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They are members of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League...
  
  . As the audience watched, Gretzky scored five goals in Edmonton's 7-5 win, hitting the fifth with 0:01 to play. Gretzky would finish the season with 92 goals.

December 31, 1981 (Thursday)

• Flight Lieutenant
  Flight Lieutenant
  Flight lieutenant is a junior commissioned rank in the Royal Air Force and the air forces of many Commonwealth countries. It ranks above flying officer and immediately below squadron leader. The name of the rank is the complete phrase; it is never shortened to "lieutenant"...
  
   Jerry Rawlings
  Jerry Rawlings
  Jerry John Rawlings is a former leader of the Republic of Ghana and now the African Union envoy to Somalia. Rawlings ruled Ghana as a military dictator in 1979 and from 1981 to 1992 and then as the first elected president of the Fourth Republic from 1993 to 2001...
  
   led a coup d'état
  Coup d'état
  A coup d'état state, literally: strike/blow of state)—also known as a coup, putsch, and overthrow—is the sudden, extrajudicial deposition of a government, usually by a small group of the existing state establishment—typically the military—to replace the deposed government with another body; either...
  
   for the second time in Ghana
  Ghana
  Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...
  
  , removing President Hilla Limann
  Hilla Limann
  Hilla Limann was the President of Ghana from 24 September, 1979 to 31 December, 1981. Eventually he became a diplomat, and served in Switzerland. Limann, whose original last name was Babini, was born in the northern Ghanaian town of Gwolu in the Sissala West District of the Upper West Region to a...
  
  . Rawlings went on the air on Ghanian radio at 11:00 am to announce that the Provisional National Defence Council
  Provisional National Defence Council
  The Provisional National Defence Council was the name of the Ghanaian government after the People's National Party's elected government was overthrown by Jerry Rawlings, the former head of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council. This was on December 31, 1981. It remained in power until January 7,...
  
   would lead the nation until order could be restored.
• Cable News Network 2, later called CNN Headline News and now HLN, first appeared on American cable television.
• Born: Francisco Garcia
  Francisco García
  Francisco García is a Dominican professional basketball player who currently plays for the Sacramento Kings of the NBA. A 6'7", 195-pound guard–forward from the University of Louisville, García was selected by the Kings in the first round of the 2005 NBA Draft...
  
  , first Dominican Republic NBA player, in Santo Domingo
  Santo Domingo
  Santo Domingo, known officially as Santo Domingo de Guzmán, is the capital and largest city in the Dominican Republic. Its metropolitan population was 2,084,852 in 2003, and estimated at 3,294,385 in 2010. The city is located on the Caribbean Sea, at the mouth of the Ozama River...
  
  
• Died: J.W. Milam, 61, who had murdered teenage African-American Emmett Till
  Emmett Till
  Emmett Louis "Bobo" Till was an African-American boy who was murdered in Mississippi at the age of 14 after reportedly flirting with a white woman. Till was from Chicago, Illinois visiting his relatives in the Mississippi Delta region when he spoke to 21-year-old Carolyn Bryant, the married...
  
  in 1955, was acquitted of kidnapping and murder by an all-White jury, then boasted about it in an article for Look Magazine.